La réforme de l’administration en France – entre méthode et enjeux

Administrative Reforms in France: the Methods and ChallengesIn France, the notion of an administrative reform has kept returning since the Enlightenment. The French administration assumed its modern guise after the 1789 in response to the more or less excessive criticism of the shortcomings of the Ancien Régime. Following the Napoleonian maxim, those ”granite boulders” were thrown onto French soil of institutions that would weather the storms of history and be an example to follow. Their creators were inspired by both tradition and the need of innovation, or bureaucratic excess to be exact, which, however, entailed the risk of diluting the obligations and responsibilities. Still, the 20th century saw a reform-minded movement yet again, motivated by the same criticism, the same plan which regardless of the passage of time was guided by the desire to make sure that the solutions were reasonable, efficient and cost-effective. It should be noted here that such attempts were particularly urgently made in the times of financial crises, and each time somewhere at the back was a spectre of the state transformed in a way that made it serve private interests. With so many reformist attempts well deserving exploration, questions arise concerning the methods and the price: how and why should administration be reformed?